Hopper door for railway cars



' 1638170 Aug. 9, 1927. v- E. SISSON a v HOPPER DOOR FOR RAILWAY CARSOriginal Filed Aug. 10, 1925 Patented Aug 9, 1927.

UNITED STATES PATENT oFFicE.

VINTON SISSON, oronicaoo, ILLINOIS, essieivon To UNION METALPRODUCTSCOMPANY, or CHICAGO, ILLINoIs, A CORIORA'DION or DELAWARE.

HOPPER noon FOR RAIIQwAYjcARs'.

Original application filed August 10, 1925, Serial No. 49,295. Dividedandthis application filed March' 8, 1926. Serial No. 93,588.

edges and is capable of being dropped. or swung open so that the load indischarging slides or passes over the upper surface of the" door. Anymeans of raising the door tothe closed position and any means forlocking and releasing the door may be employedwith my device. 7 v IExperience has shown that a slight pro ection on the upper surfaceofsuch a door J V tnereof'be as light as possible. Furthermore,

causes the discharging load to bank up and seriously retard theunlo'aijlingof the car' sometimes completely obstructing the opening andat othei't nies causing material to remain n the car. It is essentialthat the entire load be discharged when the doors are dropped in orderto conserve time when the cars are being used to ballast a main linetrack, orto eliminate'the necessity of maintaining men to remove anysmall portion of the load that remainsin the car after the doors aredropped The relative position of the rail, thetr'uck (and other parts ofthe car) iLIlGl'SQIVlCQ conditions also regulate the inclination "of thedoor after it is dropped, so that it is seldom;

possible to allow the doors to drop to a vertical position; in fact, ina drop bottom.gon-- dola car, the doors are positionedonly about thirtydegrees from ahorizontal plane when in open position. a

A door for this purpose must be f very strong and durablebecause: Y

Firstyit is'a part of the and as'such must sustain the load aswellas theimpact blow of the load when the car is in motion. Second, the car isfrequently loadedpfrcm chutes or tipples from a height of ten feet ormore, causing the load to be dropped directly upon the doors. 7 clamshell bucketsarefrequently used to" un load such cars andfi-t isnotuncoininon for these buckets to rest upon and drag over the doors.Fourth, when the door suddenly comes to rest after beingdropped, itisnot only subjected to a severe shock." but it must sustain the severeimpact which, of course, follows thedoor. Fifth, as the load istheoretically equally distributsome of the I floor of the car thrust ofthe load."

ed, the door must be strong over its entire area and must be capable oftransmitting the resulting stresses to the car body without a muchdeflection and no substantialv distortion. Any bending of the door ordrooping of. thec'ornei's would cause a leak of the lad- .ing especiallyof such fine material as sand, chats, etc. Any bending or warping mightinterfere with the complete closing and locking of the door.

, As it costs as much to haul a ton of car as itdoes to haul a ton ofpayingfreight, it is imperative that the car and any part have beenformed in metallic platesrwhich,"

however interfere with the discharge of the loading or have otherobjectionable features.

In my design the. corrugations are beams supported adjacent theiropposite ends by the hinges or hinge strap positioned substantially atright angles to "the corrugations "ll ehinge-beanis are supported attheir opposite ends to the car body. This crosswork o f'beams makes avery strong and eiii cient means of carrying the load. Continuous beamssupported ad acent their opposite ends have great strength to resist thestresses of equally distributed loads. In my arllti V rangen'ient, lhave obtained'cooperation of the corrugations and'hinges an'd' yethavenot interfered with the discharge of the lading: This lastfeatureisaccomplished by the peculiar andparticular, configuration of thecorrugation;

1 One, of't'he objects of the invention is to I obtain a strong durabledoor for a load discharging freight car made of a metallic plate formedwith integral corrugationswhich are positioned approximatelynormal tothe direction' of discharge of the lading but are of such configurationas not to interfere with the movement of the cargo when leaving the car.

Another object of the invention is to provide an arrangement whereby thecorrugations are positioned substantially normal to the supportinghinges and yet will not interfere with the discharge of the lading;

Another object of the invention is to attach the hinges to thecorrugated door so that the securing means (usually rivets) will notinterfere with the discharging of the of the invention.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 shows a portion 'of'a railway car with my device applied thereto.

Fig. 2 is a section on line 22 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is similar to Fig. 2 but shows the door in open position.

Fig. 4 is a section on line 4l-t of Fig. 1.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged section of thecorrugation.

Fig. 6 shows the attachment of the hinge to the door.

To illustrate one adaptation of mydevice, ,I.have shown a so-calledgeneral service drop bottom gondola car wherein the major portion of thefloor consists of drop doors. The dooropenings are surrounded bythe'center construction, side wall and cross diaphragms. In normal orclosed position the door completely closes this open-, ing and, 1n fact,is a trifle larger-on all s des than the opening so as to provide a lapjoint between the door and the car frame members. center constructionand are adjacentthe side wall by the raising or looking mechanisms. Anyconvenient stop, such as 2, may be used to limit the downward movementof the door.

The door is made of a metallic plate (preferably steel) which isreinforced with integral corrugations 3 resting upon hinge beams 4, thecorrugations extending continuously their full depth between the hingesand then decreasing in depth (5) and mergng into the original plane ofthe plate 6 and preferably in close proximityto the stiffening flanges7, which are formed at the opposite edges of the door. This arrangementThe hinge beams are hinged to the supported provides a very etlicientdouble supported beam with overhanging end portions and obtains acooperation between the hinge beams, the corrugations and the flanges.

These corrugations extend continuously between the opposite edges of thedoor and preferably under the adjacent cross diaphragms 9 (forming theopposite edges of the door opening) as shown in Fig. 1, so as toreinforce the entire part of the door upon which the cargo rests.

The contour of the corrugations is such that when the doors are in openor dropped position the corrugations will not interfere with thedischarge of the lading. For convenience, I have described thecorrugations as comprising an inner wall 30 and an outer wall 81, i. e.,the inner wall is the one positioned near the insideedge or hinge edgeof the door. The inner walls are preferably substantially perpendicularto the'original' plane of the plate 6, so as to form stiff and strongribs. The outer walls are preferably Wider and positioned obliquely tothe original plane of the plate. The obliquity is such that When thedoors are open these walls are inclined toward the outer edge of thedoor, i. e., the angle or slant of the plate of the. outer walls (asshown by line 1212) willnot permit the lading to stay thereon, andfurthermore, the outer wall chutes the cargo,

over the inner wall or Web of the adjacent corrugations so that theinner wall doesnot retard the movement of the cargo. The'inner walls 30and outer walls 31 merge into each other and there is no space betweenthe corrugations. The inner walls are substantially perpendicular to theplane .of the plate so as to form stiff webs, while the outer Walls arewider and positioned obliquely to the original plane ofthe "plate. Thehinge 4 is preferably joggled and se-- cured to the outer walls 31adjacent the in ner walls, as shown in Fig. 6, so that the dischargingmaterialwill not come in contact with the rivets or bolts for reasonsoutlined above. I 1 f This is a division of my co-pending applicationSerial No; 49,295, filed August 7' I claim 1. In combination with theother elements. 7 V

of a railway dump car; adoor made of a metallic plate formed withcorrugations, each of said corrugations comprising an inner wall and anouterlwall, said inner wall being narrower than said outer'wall, andsubstan tially perpendicular to the original plane of V I the plate. y

2. In combination with the other elements of a railway dump car; a doormade of'a metallic plate formed with corrugations terminating withinthe'edges of the'plate, each of said corrugations comprising an innerwall and an outer wall, said inner wall being narrower than said outerwall, and substantially perpendicular to the original plane of theplate. a

3. In combination with the other elements of a railway dump car; adoormade of a metallic plate formed with a plurality of contiguouscorrugations, each of said corrugations comprising an inner wall and anouter wall, said inner wall being narrower than said outer wall, andsubstantially perpendicular to the original plane of the plate.

4. A door for a railway oar made of a metallic plate formed withcorrugations, each of said corrugations comprising an .inner wall andanouter wall, said inner wall being narrower than said outer wall, andsubstantially perpendicular to the original plane of the plate. 1

5. In combination with the other elements of a railway dump car; a doormade of a metallic plate formed with corrugations comprising inner andouter walls, the outer walls being of such angular relation to theoriginal plane of the plate that when the door is in open position saidouter walls are inclined toward the outer edge of the door, said innerwalls being substantially perpendicular to the original plane of theplate.

6. In combination with the other elements of a railway dump car; a doormade of a metallic plate formed with corrugations comprising inner andouter walls, the inner walls being substantially perpendicular to theoriginal plane of the plate, the outer walls being positioned obliquelyto the original plane of the plate, and hinges attached.

tothe car body extending normal to said corrugations and secured tosaidouter wall.

7. In combination with'the other elements of a railway dump car; a doormade of a metallic plate formed with corrugations comprising inner andouter walls, the inner walls being substantially perpendicular to uINToNE. SISSON.

